On Saturday, September 10, 2016, Roscoe Eades Stadium in Sterling, IL, hosted the Morrison Ponies and Newman Central Catholic Shooting Stars fresh-soph football game, with fall-like temperatures and a rivalry that exists every time these football programs meet.
Both sidelines chose to use the ground game; only three passes were thrown all night, with one completion. The “grind it out” strategies worked in Newman’s favor, as they collected 309 yards to Morrison’s 219 yards.
The Ponies received their first possession with Nathan Mickley starting as the third quarterback to start in three games. They needed only three minutes to match the opening scoring drive by Newman. They covered 70 yards, with Keagan Anderson scoring on a 23-yard scamper. Anderson also broke a 17 yarder, and Jacob Schlegel broke a 19 yarder on the drive. That ended with a Riley Wilkens extra point kick and a 7-6 lead to end the quarter.
The Shooting Stars scored on both second quarter possessions on first-and-one situations at the one-foot line. The Ponies’ only drive of the quarter ended with a 1-yard dive by Wilkens to wrap up a 65-yard drive–featuring runs by Schlegel of 15 and 8, Anderson of 8 and 6, and Wilkens of 6, 7, 4, and the 1 yard score. Wilkens‘ extra point gave the Ponies a brief 14-12 lead with 4:02 left in the half. Newman used all of the remaining clock to grind out a 64-yard scoring drive, that ended with a 1-yard score by Nick Clevenger with 8.1 left in the half. Newman took an 18-14 advantage into the halftime intermission. Newman had edged the Ponies in rushing yardage in the half: 182 to 157.
The third quarter changed the tone of the game. Morrison’s offense could only generate nine yards of total offense. That included an 8-yard pass completion from Mickley to Wade Hackbarth in their 3 minutes and 44 seconds of possession. The remainder of the quarter was owned by the Stars. A 65-yard drive ended with a 22-yard score by Brody Ivey, to up the score after three quarters to 26-14.
Newman scored early in the final quarter on a 4-yard plunge by D. J. Johnson, and the spread moved to 33-14 with 8:11 left in the game. The Ponies rallied a final 69-yard drive ending in an end run by Schlegel, that formed the final 33-20 score.
Morrison 7 – 7- 0 – 6 = 20
Newman 6 – 12 – 8 – 7 = 33
Rushing: Morrison 219 yards ( Schlegel = 115, Anderson = 52, Wilkens = 48)
Newman: 309 yards